Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
You're in deep trouble, religious teachers and rule-followers, you're total fakes! You'll travel across oceans and continents to get one person to convert to your way of thinking, and when they do, you turn them into someone twice as headed for destruction as you already are.
Bad leaders don't just mess up their own lives, they drag others down with them even harder.
📚 Historical Context
In the first century, the scribes and Pharisees were prominent Jewish religious leaders who emphasized strict adherence to the Law of Moses and actively sought to convert Gentiles to Judaism, often traveling great distances to do so. Jesus delivered this rebuke during His final week in Jerusalem, as part of a series of woes against these leaders for their hypocrisy and legalism. This highlights the tension between outward religious zeal and inner spiritual corruption in the context of Second Temple Judaism.
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